Rice broke the news to his team. Seavey was concerned over the cost of racing on pavement and admitted his own hardtop résumé was thin at best. Crew chief Ronnie Gardner was also a bit incredulous. Even today, Gardner says Rice was the only one who thought pavement racing was a good idea.
“When the car showed up it was like, ‘man this is going to be a headache for sure,‘” he said. “It had some nice stuff on it, but it had sat for four or five years.”
There was a method to Rice‘s madness.
“I talked to some of my closest friends and none of them thought it was a good idea,” he admitted, “but I had it stuck in my mind that this was a way to grow the race team and if I didn‘t take this opportunity I would never have a chance to get more sponsors down the road. That was important because I couldn‘t afford to do this on my own.”
Finkenbinder proved to be a great help providing parts and spares where possible, but the task of getting this new piece race ready now fell to a largely novice group. When all assembled for the first test session, the results could have been predicted. What was unexpected, and welcomed, was the amount of help offered by other teams.
“At our first test session Kody Swanson was there and came over and looked at the car and gave us some pointers,” Rice said. “Bobby Santos was there too. He was really big. I wouldn‘t know what gears to run at some of these places and Bobby was very nice to help us. Chuy Sandberg and Jerome Rodela also helped us, in fact no one who we reached out to said, ‘no.‘ We needed baseline help. It was like everyone felt a need to help our rookie driver.”
The first asphalt race of the season was postponed because of weather, giving the team additional time to prepare. The decision to go pavement racing put the team in a precarious fiscal position leaving little margin for error.
Accordingly, it was critical to complete the race and load the car up on the trailer at the end of the day. At the first test only a handful of laps were completed, so there was some justifiable anxiety heading into the opener. To increase the chance for survival Gardner took a conservative approach to his preparation. On top of the normal concerns, rain had reduced the scheduled practice time for the event at Lucas Oil Raceway, so the best possible outcome in Gardner‘s mind was to just get the car close.
“I took all the cockpit adjustments out of it,” he said, “and went to the most basic thing you could do because I needed to learn what I was doing and Logan had never driven a Silver Crown car on pavement.”
It was a plan that worked to perfection. Seavey settled in as the night went on and finished seventh.
In order to vie for the Silver Crown title, a team must be competent on both dirt and pavement. This result put Rice Motorsports in an excellent position given their confidence in the dirt program.
During the next round at Pennsylvania‘s Williams Grove Speedway, Seavey had moved to the head of the field when a mechanical issue ruined his day. It was disappointing, but affirmed the team‘s promise. The next dirt race at Eldora didn‘t go quite as well as planned and at on the pavement at Winchester (Ind.) Speedway, the car took a beating with some parts failing to survive the night.
As August began, Seavey was the fourth in the standings.
While Seavey might have hoped for better results in the Silver Crown cars, he still had a jump in his step because of a new opportunity in the sprint car ranks. To the shock and dismay of many, popular veteran Dave Darland was sidelined by health challenges. Seavey had been racing a sprint car here and there but did not have steady work.
Seavey received an unexpected text from Derek Claxton, who was the head mechanic on Kenny Baldwin‘s sprint car. With Darland out, the team needed a driver and inquired about Seavey‘s availability. It was an easy choice.
Seavey was fast out of the box and immediately felt comfortable in the car.
“I knew Derek was really good at Eldora and all the big tracks,” Seavey says, “but later I became aware he was good at all of them.”
It began as a race-to-race deal, but when the team clicked for victories in several Indiana races, they knew they were on to something.
Indiana Sprint Week is a tough grind and tests the will of even the strongest squads. While the team fell short of the goal of capturing the series championship, Seavey stunned many by winning three races in a row.
He was proud of his accomplishment at Lawrenceburg and Gas City speedways but admits the victory at Terre Haute was extra special.
“I had never been that good there,” he said. “Chris Windom and Justin Grant are so tough there. They are the guys to beat. That night I ran with Justin the whole race and kept him behind us. For me that was the biggest win of the season because for me that is the coolest track in Indiana, perhaps, next to the fairgrounds.”
Riding a high note, Seavey reunited with his Silver Crown mates at Selinsgrove Speedway in August and waxed the field. At one point in the 75-lap race, he was so far in front that everyone pulling for him was on pins and needles. In the end, all the angst was for naught as driver and crew celebrated in victory lane.
A return to the pavement at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis netted another top-10 finish, but significantly, Swanson stood in victory lane. With a nearly 50-point lead over Seavey, Swanson switched gears and decided it behooved him to try and seal the deal.